Hanukkah At Home

Hanukkah is also a time of joyous singing of traditional Ashkenazic and Sephardic songs, as well as more recent songs composed in the United States, Israel, and elsewhere. Some families enjoy decorating their homes for Hanukkah.

With the proximity of Christmas, Hanukkah has emerged in the United States as a central gift-giving time for Jews, although in Europe the tradition had been to give children only raisins, nuts, and small amounts of Hanukkah gelt ("money"). Today some Jews advocate giving children gifts on Purim instead of Hanukkah, because the scroll of Esther actually mandates that Purim be celebrated with mishloah manot, "the giving of gifts" (although these are traditionally gifts of food), and matanot l'evyonim, "gifts for the poor."